‖ icterus
(ˈɪktərəs)
[L., a. Gr. ἴκτερος jaundice; also, a yellowish-green bird, by looking at which jaundiced persons were supposed to be cured.]
1. Path. The disease jaundice.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Icterus, the Jaundice. 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 240 Irritation..acting upon the hepatic system, is..the cause of icterus. 1886 Lancet 15 May 947/2 [He] pointed out that diabetes was not a disease, but a symptom like icterus. |
b. Bot. A disease of plants in which the leaves turn yellow.
| [1807 Edin. Rev. XI. 85 To the natural decay of the leaves in Autumn, he has given the name of Icterus.] 1866 Treas. Bot., Icterus, a name given to the yellow condition assumed by wheat and some other plants, under the influence of prolonged wet and cold... The golden hues of autumn belong clearly to another category. |
2. Zool. a. A genus of American passerine birds, formerly nearly coextensive with the modern family Icteridæ, now restricted to the American orioles or hangbirds, a typical species being the troopial or icteric oriole, I. vulgaris (see icteric A. 2).
| 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. (1749) II. 25 note, The nest of the Guira tangeima, the Icterus minor, and the Jupujuba, or whatever other name the American Hang-nests may be called by. |